Rate the Unit, Day 92: Brave Ephraim & Brave Veronica

[Troykv]

On 3/7/2018 at 2:30 PM, Ice Dragon said:

I see so many comparisons between Mathilda and Jagen, and pretty much every single one of them is wrong. Jagen trades 2 Atk for 2 HP, 1 Def, and 1 Res, which is a good trade for their stat line, but the real kicker is that his entire veteran penalty went to Spd, which is exactly the stat he wants to dump, allowing him to safely run a -Spd nature instead of another stat and run a single-turn Glacies instead of Iceberg. And being a pure enemy-phase unit, Jagen is completely unaffected by the existence of trenches. Jagen is the better of the two.

So... Now Mathilda is the worst unit in the game? Because using Jagen kills you're score.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Troykv

[DehNutCase]

2 hours ago, Troykv said:

So... Now Mathilda is the worst unit in the game? Because using Jagen skills you're score.

We're omitting arena scoring. Otherwise even I would score armors higher.

 

I'll never use them, mind, but I would score them higher, since arena is more about how to get the most points than how to build the strongest team.

[Troykv]

14 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

We're omitting arena scoring. Otherwise even I would score armors higher.

 

I'll never use them, mind, but I would score them higher, since arena is more about how to get the most points than how to build the strongest team.

I would like to use my Mathilda more; but I'm not even sure what to do with her.

[LordFrigid]

Amelia

• Fairly balanced stat line, with good Atk, Spd, and Def, and low Res.
  • Very strong blue, strong green matchups on offense with a mixed phase set using Bold Fighter. Can get walled by Def-stacking greens.
  • Very strong blue, passable green matchups on defense with a mixed phase set using the Quick Riposte seal.
• As an armor unit, she can provide an Armor field or combat buff. She has Panic Ploy capability with her HP stat.

Overall, I give her 9 for combat (very strong blue, strong green matchups on offense, mixed phase capability), and 1.5 for support (armor field/combat buff, panic ploy capability), for a total rating of 8.5/10.

Innes

• Offense-focused stat line with good Spd, decent Atk and Res, and low Def.
  • Nidhogg (Atk/Spd/Def/Res+2 per adjacent ally during combat) is a decent weapon on both phases, though notably stronger on the enemy phase, since it is easier to ensure that allies will be adjacent.
  • Decent offense performance with a standard Brave Bow+ set. Runs into the usual issues with physically bulky enemies. He can run Firesweep as well, which will lower his KO power but prevent him from being counterattacked.
  • Very strong defense matchups against mages with Nidhogg and Atk/Res Bond.
• He has some stat ploy capability with his decent Res.

Overall, I give him 6 for combat (decent offense performance with a standard Brave Bow or Firesweep+Ploy set), and 1 for support (stat ploy capability), for a total rating of 5.5/10.

~

Scoring method:

Spoiler

Units are evaluated based on both their combat performance and their team support capabilities (i.e. their whole contribution to a team).

• Combat performance is judged by matchups, especially against enemies that are at triangle disadvantage or neutral to the unit. Performance against more relevant meta threats is more valuable than performance against units that are rarely seen. Triangle Adept sets are not considered, though they might be noted. Scale of 0 to 10.
  • Sustainability and filling a useful niche are given small bonuses, when applicable.
  • I will look at least one PP-focused and one EP-focused skill set for each unit, but only evaluate based on performance for whichever phase I deem the unit to be stronger on.
• Support capabilities are decided by how much support a unit can provide (without horribly compromising their combat capabilities), and how valuable I feel that support is. Scale of 0 to 3.
• At the end, the combat and support scores will be weighted (with a heavy focus on combat performance), combined, and rounded to the nearest .5 to obtain the total rating. Dancers and Singers will get +1 point to their total rating (not to exceed 10), because I value Dance/Sing utility highly.

This method of evaluation essentially compares each unit to a hypothetical "god unit" who is stellar at everything, instead of each unit to each other.

All my ratings.

Edited July 6, 2018 by LordFrigid

[DehNutCase]

1 hour ago, Troykv said:

I would like to use my Mathilda more; but I'm not even sure what to do with her.

I had most of my review on Mathilda hidden under a spoiler tag, so I'll copy and paste them here. But you can also ask this kind of thing in the Q&A thread or general thread, and I'm sure people will be happy to help.

Quote

 

BST: 35/29/32/24/34

Mathilda... has a very uncomfortable spread. Middling speed, poor bulk, low Atk all combine to produce a unit that's difficult to use offensively and defensively.

High Res would normally point to a dragon slayer, if her Atk wasn't so low that she'd do 0 damage per hit.

Her kit options are quite limited because of her spread:

You have to give her a refine---it's too important to fix her bulk before anything else---there's no point having speed if you get OHKOd on the counter. This means no brave weapon builds.

Defensively her stats, even after refine, aren't reliable enough to counter-kill or even just face-tank, that means things like QR DC are right out.

That is, Mathilda should probably only ever run offensive or supportive sets.

 

First, in terms of support Mathilda is top tier:

Because of the way I rate things, a horse with no skills except reposition and 1 point in all stats would still rate at least a 3.5. Reposition is just way too strong of a support skill as long as your teammates aren't potatoes.

Yes, if you run 3 potatoes like that your last unit better be a 10/10 unit to carry arena matches (I'm making 20 points the point where an arena team becomes 'viable'), but that's merely annoying rather than impossible. A CC -Blade Reinhardt build, for example, should be able to carry 5 wins even if the rest of his team are level 1 reposition & Hone/Fort Cavalry grunts. Not very reliably, mind, but that's what you get for running a 20 point team rather than a 35 point team.

 

Horse buff Acess, 3 move Reposition, 3 move Drive/Spur usage all combine to mean that, once a Hagoita, Kadomatsu, or Blessed Bouquet equivalent for lances comes along, she can easily pick one of them up to solidify her role as a mobile buff battery that only enters combat when she's going to crush it. (Baiting dragons on a defense tile, for example. She should probably be running Moonbow or Luna for this purpose, to actually deal damage to the dragon hitting her.)

 

In terms of Offensive Sets:

Mathilda, due to her stat spread, will only ever be a mediocre offensive unit. But even mediocre is good enough if your opponent happened to be a fragile team, so things like Killer Lance, Heavy Blade (S-Seal), Galeforce would still be workable as a build. Just... not nearly as good as, say, Cordelia doing it.

 

Basically, just pretend she's an Eirika with a better reposition. Horse buff access means that she can naturally buff 3 stats at once from Hone/Fort in the C-slot and another buff skill in the S-slot. Since combat won't be Mathilda's main role, she should be built to hard-counter the few units she will be seeing combat against.

ex. If you team is green heavy, consider a TA set. If your team doesn't have anyone else to deal with dragons, maybe a close defense QR set with Iceberg, or even a Guard set with healer support so that she can just slowly chip a dragon to death.

Of course, the main problem with sets like this is that, while on an absolute scale Mathilda is quite good (I rated her above Amelia), she has trouble competing against her own kind. On account of the fact that her own kind includes some of the best units in the game.

 

Reinhardt provides everything she could in the support role while also being Reinhardt. (The dire thunder build is the obvious one, but -blade Rein with CC Vantage will perform just as well as an similarly buffed Hector on defense.* On offense the two would be incomparable for the simple reason that Reinhardt is a ranged horse, and Hector is a melee armor.)

*I tend to give armors only a Hone Armor or a Fort Armor in cases like this, under the assumption that they have to waste a buff slot on armor march and the fact that it's kind of asinine to try to get armors to buff each other. Whereas Rein gets both Hone Cavalry and Fort Cavalry because horses have 3 move to stand in the right place to be buffed.

[Troykv]

4 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

I had most of my review on Mathilda hidden under a spoiler tag, so I'll copy and paste them here. But you can also ask this kind of thing in the Q&A thread or general thread, and I'm sure people will be happy to help.

Basically, just pretend she's an Eirika with a better reposition. Horse buff access means that she can naturally buff 3 stats at once from Hone/Fort in the C-slot and another buff skill in the S-slot. Since combat won't be Mathilda's main role, she should be built to hard-counter the few units she will be seeing combat against.

ex. If you team is green heavy, consider a TA set. If your team doesn't have anyone else to deal with dragons, maybe a close defense QR set with Iceberg, or even a Guard set with healer support so that she can just slowly chip a dragon to death.

Of course, the main problem with sets like this is that, while on an absolute scale Mathilda is quite good (I rated her above Amelia), she has trouble competing against her own kind. On account of the fact that her own kind includes some of the best units in the game.

 

Reinhardt provides everything she could in the support role while also being Reinhardt. (The dire thunder build is the obvious one, but -blade Rein with CC Vantage will perform just as well as an similarly buffed Hector on defense.* On offense the two would be incomparable for the simple reason that Reinhardt is a ranged horse, and Hector is a melee armor.)

*I tend to give armors only a Hone Armor or a Fort Armor in cases like this, under the assumption that they have to waste a buff slot on armor march and the fact that it's kind of asinine to try to get armors to buff each other. Whereas Rein gets both Hone Cavalry and Fort Cavalry because horses have 3 move to stand in the right place to be buffed.

It would be nice to have more ways to get Distant and Close Defense; and find putting TA to a unit... embarrassing.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Troykv

[DehNutCase]

2 minutes ago, Troykv said:

It would be nice to have more ways to get Distant and Close Defense; and find putting TA to a unit... embarrassing.

*Selena silently raises an eyebrow*

 

Edit: In all seriousness, though, you could also just wait for a Hagoita equivalent to solidify Mathilda's role as a support. A refined weapon should bump her BST to the point where she'll be winning the fights she needs to win regardless. (My Flying Azura does see combat every once in a while, even if Cordelia usually sweeps everything.)

Edited July 6, 2018 by DehNutCase

[Troykv]

4 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

*Selena silently raises an eyebrow*

Basically I find that a unit that uses TA (unless it's a special cases like Raven Users that now heavy counters two colors)... it's because that unit accepted that they're bad.

[DehNutCase]

9 minutes ago, Troykv said:

Basically I find that a unit that uses TA (unless it's a special cases like Raven Users that now heavy counters two colors)... it's because that unit accepted that they're bad.

In terms of combat specs, sure, but there's a reason OG!Azura was considered amazing. Great support + decent combat when you need it is an excellent combination.

Mathilda's support isn't as good, of course, but it's as close as it gets without being a dancer.

 

And I would say it's less 'they accepted that they're bad' and more, they know exactly who they're going to fight. If you're never going to fight blues as a red unit TA is pretty damn attractive, even if you'll be called on to sword duels occasionally.

[eclipse]

Amelia - Her 34 speed runs circles around every other green armor (Lissa's next-closest at 30).  34 attack is on the low side, beating out Lissa and Sheena.  She has low defense and resistance. . .but I'm being dishonest again~!  35 defense is tied for the lowest among axe armors, but it's still pretty impressive when paired with 47 HP, and enough speed to not get doubled by a lot of things.  It's a little odd to be a defensively weak armor, but Amelia's defense is her speed - if she's not doubled, she can take twice the damage.  While other armors are one-punch walls, Amelia acts more like a foot unit that happens to have armor characteristics.  6.5/10

Innes - 3 Res off of Niles is an acceptable trade-off for 8 Atk!  Innes can grab a Guard Bow, bait mages, and have a shot of actually killing them.  33/34 are decent offensive numbers, only beaten out by Cordelia.  He can run a Brave Bow if he's +Atk, but if Leon misses some benchmarks, Innes will fall short.  Definitely not a bad pick, though.  7/10

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Amelia: Amelia is surprisingly very good. She seems to focus on speed but still has good stats elsewhere, with the only middling stat being resistance. She comes equipped naturally with a good weapon and skills, but she can definitely run other options effectively. 8/10

Innes: He has fantastic resistance, making him a good option for mage baiting, and for an infantry archer he has good attack and speed. His personal weapon's effects make him a good team player, sort of like Legendary Lyn but slightly worse. His defense is where he struggles, but that seems to be so common it's negligible. 8/10

[Usana]

Amelia - Best. Period. Bias aside - she doesn't hold up quite as well these days. The advent of Bold Fighter makes speed unnecessary for armors and the speed creeping has her sitting a bit uncomfortably right now when it comes to speed=defense. This double blow hurts since her main advantage over her brethren tends to be her speed. And speed just doesn't matter much anymore in the realm of Armor Emblem. Another problem is, unlike many of her Green Brethren, she lacks a focus in a singular combat style. A Generalist General. That said I tend to like generalists. And it isn't like her matchups are poor or anything. Further more not out performing some of her fellow green armors isn't a bad thing considering they are some of the best units in the game. She might be 2nd rate to some of the other green armors these days, but being the worst of the best is hardly a bad thing(and it isn't even like that is true either, she is more like sitting comfortably in the middle of the Green armor pack). She is also close to being ready to go right out of the gate with Slaying Axe and March. All in all I have to say 9/10. Even with my Bias I can't give her a 10 out of 10 in the current meta. And even without my Bias I can't view her as having poorer matchups then those I consider 8's. So 9 seems a fair medium.

Innes - I am tempted to give him a low score. He has never performed well for me with his default kit and since mine is +SPD/-ATK I have never bothered to try a Brave bow set. In addition he sits at 34 speed just like Amelia. In the past that was a good speed point. These days it isn't quite as good. As for why I can't rate him poorly even if he has never worked out for me? Of the 34 speed archers he has the highest attack and second highest RES behind Niles. His HP makes his RES kinda questionable, particularly since mages tend to like to focus on speed and have a fair chance of doubling him. Basically if you look at his stats, he is effectively an infantry Brave Lyn. Before the release of Noire he was probably the 2nd best infantry archer behind Cordelia. So he is basically the best bravebow/firesweep bow option in the general infantry pool. But that is kinda like saying he is the best of the worst. I imagine if mine were -DEF instead of -ATK I might have a slightly higher opinion of him. But as it is my logical analysis is tempered by my, 'he always misses the KO's by just a hair' experience. 7/10. His statline is solid, his movement type less so, and his default kit even more less so.

[Shiki]

Amelia: 7.80
Innes: 6.89

Now for a much anticipated banner. Let's start with the two who draw the short stick.

Roy, Brave Lion

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
34/38/41
29/32/35
31/34/37
23/26/30
21/24/27

Base Skills:

Blazing Durandal ( Grants Atk+3. If unit's Atk > foe's Atk, grants Special cooldown charge +1 per attack. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack.) )
( - )
Galeforce

Steady Blow
Desperation
( - )

Lucina, Brave Witness

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
38/41/44
31/34/37
33/36/39
24/27/31
16/19/22

Base Skills:

Geirskögul ( Grants Def+3. If allies within 2 spaces use sword, lance, axe, bow, or dagger, grants Atk/Spd+3 to those allies during combat.
( - )
Aether

Sturdy Blow
( - )
Drive Spd

 

[MacLovin]

I've only used Brave Roys in the voting gauntlet.

8/10 Good sword dude on a horse with built in heavy blade. Can take a shitload of builds and options. I want one.

Brave Lucina

8/10 Good buffbot, even with a neutrally offensive nature. Kills shit, fits on teams, and can be built with low investment.

[DehNutCase]

Roy:

BST: 38/32/34/26/24

Tip top offenses for a horse, and also starts with a reasonably complete kit. Galeforce is almost the only reason to use a melee over a ranged horse, and Roy is built to leverage the hell out of it.

(Off-topic: A friend's Brave Roy is actually why I looked into building a Slaying Lance Galeforce Cordelia. His combats aren't the amazing 'everything he touches dies' of my lineup, but he has the significant advantage of having more combats than anyone else, thanks to Galeforce and horse mobility---which is very noticeable in places like Grand Conquests.)

His Galeforce set isn't as reliable as Cordelia's, since Cordelia runs Slaying Lance to bring Galeforce to 4cd, but he has a S-slot free to fix that issue with Quick Pulse if he wants to, or just stack some more stats to fix the horse BST issue.

Support-wise he's still a horse, with all the support capabilities a horse naturally has in class buff access and 3 move reposition.

All in all, a solid

8.5/10

for much the same reasons as Tana.

(And, between the two, I'd rather raise a Brave Roy than Tana, thanks to the fact that his starting kit is pretty much all he wants.)

 

Lucina:

BST: 41/34/36/27/19

Excellent offense, min-maxed defenses means stellar combats. Infantry mobility is the second worst in the game, but it's still twice as good as armored mobility, so I can live with it in terms of a support role, and Geirskogul is quite amazing in an support role, with +3/+3 offenses to all physical units.

The best comparison would probably be OG!Azura. Lucina trades the ridiculous support ability of Sing for actual combat stats. If a team has more or less enough support already, but is lacking in the combat department, Lucina can often be slotted in without issue.

I often bring her along for the monthly infantry quests, on account of the fact that Nohr!Azura & Lucina means very reasonable physical unit support, and excellent combat triangle coverage once a red is slotted in. (Often Vanguard Ike)

Despite her stellar stats, however, you probably shouldn't be bringing her into a team if you aren't going to leverage her superb support in her Prf, as other blue lances have competitive stats while also functioning better as sweepers. (Tana and Cordelia, for example, can get Hone Fliers from Flying Azura while also having near identical offensive stats, and, being Fliers themselves, can carry Hone or Goad Fliers in the C-slot, for similar, although more niche, support capabilities.)

 

All in all, a very nice

7.5/10

for a unit with great combat and better than average support, even if hindered by infantry mobility.

[Usana]

Brave Roy - This guy I didn't like much at first. Doesn't help that my only ever copy is -ATK. However, between seeing videos of him clearing and of managing it from time to time even with -ATK I must say he is impressive. The only Red Horse with better offense than him is Siegbert. He can be surprisingly tanky at times with 64/62 one hit bulk, but that 38 HP doesn't really do him many favors, particularly since he will be running his sword so no HP boost from refine. Again with the 34 speed. Used to be great. Not quite as much anymore. Still a usable tier though. He isn't quite as unique these days as he was when he was released since Heavy Blade is a seal. However, that is still 3 extra attack he can have compared to other people trying the same strategy. Plus it means someone else can use your Heavy Blade Seal. 9/10. Not sure if he still deserves it of if he should lose half a point(that might just be the -ATK talking), but he does excel at his niche and is one of the best red horses period. So not really a controversial rating.

Brave Lucina - This was the lass I wanted to like. The opposite of Brave Roy she quickly fell out of favor. However, this doesn't much impact her rating. See statline wise she is basically Tana with more HP and a focus on defense with the expense being her RES. Her problem is that there are a lot of strong lances she is competing with. And not only lances but blue mages and dragons are some of the best. So unlike her fellow brave, she doesn't stand out much beyond her spur bot role. Not because she isn't good, but simply because she faces a large amount of competition that Roy doesn't face. 8/10. Her niche isn't quite as useful as Roy's and I see her as offensively similar to Tana. Better physical defense, but not by enough to change the rating in my opinion. And Spurbot vs flier is a wash. So she gets the same Rating as Tana.

 

 

[Alexmender]

Now we're getting close to the age of 7> units, this will be fun. 

Brave Roy. His stat spread focuses on Atk/Spd which is further implied with his Prf Weapon Blazing Durandal which is a 19Mt sword with Heavy Blade built-in, meaning that he'll have an easy time using high CD skills like Galeforce/Aether/Dragon Fang. He is still one of the better PP sword cavaliers to this day, only outclassed by Siegbert but not by much. Now, Brave Roy suffers a bit from being a one-trick pony but his niche is a very good one considering that offensive sword cavs are relatively rare. Still, Brave Roy remains one of the best units in the game with the only problem being his relatively low BST but that doesn't mean anything for his performance.

Rating: 8/10

Brave Lucina. Her stat spread is practically the same as her original version, which means she's a great offensive unit with mediocre bulk. What sets Brave Lucina apart is her support capabilities which makes her one of the best support units in the game, although she falls a bit short from Marth and Eirika/Ephraim due to her being locked to support only physical units while the other 3 are more universal. She is a very straightfoward unit, have her close to her teammates to increase their power and bulk and use her wonderful spread to deal good amounts of damage. 

Rating: 7.5/10

Edited July 6, 2018 by Alexmender

[DehNutCase]

21 minutes ago, Alexmender said:

What sets Brave Lucina apart is her support capabilities which makes her one of the best support units in the game, although she falls a bit short from Marth and Eirika/Ephraim due to her being locked to support only Axe/Lance/Sword units while the other 3 are more universal.

Lucina buffs bows and daggers as well. She supports all physical units.

[Alexmender]

1 minute ago, DehNutCase said:

Lucina buffs bows and daggers as well. She supports all physical units.

Thanks. Will edit that part.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Brave Roy: One of the best sword cavalry units, in my opinion. He's very offensive and comes with good skills, specials, and a weapon right off the bat. He can work very well with a cavalry team as well as a mixed team. He is a little frail, though, he doesn't tank too many hits. Still, though, he's a great offensive cavalry. 9/10

Brave Lucina: Take Brave Roy, give him a lance, take away his horse, make him defense-oriented for buffing. That's Brave Lucina. 9/10

Edited July 6, 2018 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Simpsons138]

Now for the Choose Your Legends characters, starting with the two who got second place:

• Brave Roy: Having the second highest speed on sword cavaliers, a weapon that boost his attack power and has Heavy Blade, a base kit that already makes him dangerous with Desperation and Galeforce, and a respectable physical bulk, Roy is a sword cavalier well worth in the team if mostly for his base kit, Horse Emblem functionality and with the ability to already double a lot of enemies after horse buffs, it's no wonder he was inspired by his father and got a better weapon than him, just run away from mages and horse slaying weapons and you'll be fine, so ride that horse into battle and be our boy, 8/10

 

• Brave Lucina: Her role is similar to Eirika in being a buff bot with her personal weapon and Drive Speed boosting allies' attack and speed drastically (especially if they're physical units), except that she buffs stats while in battle instead and has the power to be an offensive unit, 27 defense with a superboon is not bad with an additional +3 thanks to her weapon, along with an amazing offensive spread of 34/36, she can hit hard, double opponents and take a lot of physical hits without a problem, HP of 41 is also good as well, just mostly be careful with units that target her resistance as it will hurt a lot, 8/10

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Brave Roy - The general consensus is that Roy was on top until the double release of Siegbert and the Heavy Draw seal. I suppose that's one way to look at it, but seals have started to include several competitive skills since. If siegbert puts Heavy Draw on his A, and Roy puts Swift Sparrow on, then they're pretty much the same in terms of performance. Roy's 32 attack is lower than average for this class (the lowest attack stat among sword cavs is 31), but he does carry a 19MT weapon to make up for it. Unfortunately his BST is lower than the current standard for this class unless he takes a sub-optimal Def superboon. 6.5 out of 10. Every sword cav we get makes Roy slip more and more to a point that he's becoming a mid tier among his class. Competitively viable for a player phase unit, but you can ask a lot more from your sword cavs these days.

Brave Lucina - I don't own her so I think I'll abstain just because no lance unit is quite like her niche. I will say her personal weapon doesn't sound bad due to it being an in-combat bonus rather than a start of turn buff. If it were the latter it would be useless in the face of tactics skills. Being able to improve the offenses of allies regardless of movement class makes this a sensible addition to a tactics-driven meta so Brave Lucina may have gotten better over time rather than worse.

Past Ratings 

Spoiler

1. Alfonse - 3
2. Marth - 7
3. Sharena - 3
4. Jagen - 1
5. Anna - 4.5
6. Barst - 3
7. Cain - 4
8. Draug - 7.5
9. Gordin - 5
10. Jeorge - 5.5
11. Abel - 5.5
12. Linde - 9
13. Minerva - Abstain
14. Merric - 3.5
15. Maria - 6
16. Wrys - 3.5
17. Ceada - Abstain
18. Ogma - 4
19. Catria - 4
20. Est - 6
21. Sheena - 6.5
22. Cecilia - 4
23. Clarine - 6.5
24. Matthew - 4
25. Palla - 2.5
26. Roy -7
27. Gwendolyn - 7.5
28. Shanna - 4.5
29. Bartre - 7
30. Fae - 7.5
31. Serra - 4
32. Lissa - 2
33. Y!Tiki - 8
34. Lilina - 7
35. Florina - 1.5
36. M!Robin - 3.5
37. Hector - 8
38. Raven - 8.5
39. Gaius - 4 
40. Virion - 3.5
41. Raigh - 1.5
42. Sophia - 3.5
43. Sully -2.5
44. Cordelia -7
45. Hawkeye - 5.5
46. Nino - 8
47. Felicia - 6.5
48. Jakob - 1
49. Fir - 4
50. Eliwood - 5.5
51. Donnel - 3.5
52. Nowi - 8.5
53. Frederick - 6.5
54. Cherche - 7.5
55. Saizo - 4
56. Kagero - 4.5
57. Lyn - 7
58. Chrom - 5
59. F!Corrin - 7
60. Azura - 6.5
61. Gunter - 3
62. Camilla - 5.5
63. Azama - 6.5
64. Setsuna - 3.5
65. Stahl - 2.5
66. Lonqu - 3
67. Hinoka - 7.5
68. Oboro - 2.5
69. Beruka - 6
70. Arthur - 2
71. Takumi - 5.5
72. Sakura - 3
73. Olivia - 7
74. Henry - 2
75. Subaki - 4.5
76. Peri - 6.5
77. Niles - 1.5
78. Elise - 7.5
79. Tharja - 5
80. A!Tiki - 8
81. Odin - 1 
82. Effie - 7.5
83. Lucina - 7
84. M!Corrin - 6
85. Ryoma - 5.5
86. Hinata - 4.5
87. Hana - 5.5
88. Laslow - 3
89. Selena - 2
90. Leo - 2
91. Eirika - 5
92. Seliph - 5.5
93. Ephraim - 7
94. Julia - 6
95. Eldigan - Abstain
96. Sanaki - 6.5
97. Reinhardt - 8
98. Olwen - 5.5
99. Lachesis - 3
100. Klein - 4
101. Karel - 6.5
102. Ninian - 7
103. Lucius - 4.5
104. Rebecca - 2.5
105. Priscilla - 4
106. Jaffar - 3.5
107. Alm - 9
108. Lukas - 7.5
109. Clair - 7
110. Faye - 5.5
111. Ike - 6
112. Titania - 3.5
113. Soren - 4
114. Mist - 2.5
115. Celica - 7
116. Mae - 6.5
117. Boey - 3.5
118. Genny - 6
119. Luke - 3.5
120. Katarina - 5.5
121. Athena - 3.5
122. Roderick - 6
123. Gray - 5
124. Saber - 3
125. Mathilda - 3
126. Delthea - 6.5
127. Sonya - 4.5
128. Leon - 6
129. Seth - 2
130. Tana - 7
131. Amelia -8
132. Innes - 6
133. Brave Roy - 6.5
134. Brave Lucina - Abstain

Ratings I would change in retrospect: Gordin would be a 2.5 and Jeorge a 4, Cain would be a 3, Cecilia would be a 3.5. Linde would be 7. And I'd drop Matthew and Saizo to 3.5. Beruka would be a 7. Caeda I'd rate a 5.5 now that I've been using her at 5 star. Leo I'd bump up to a 3. Hector is a 7.5 because he's been powercreeped again.

 

[Ice Dragon]

7 hours ago, Usana said:

The advent of Bold Fighter makes speed unnecessary for armors and the speed creeping has her sitting a bit uncomfortably right now when it comes to speed=defense. This double blow hurts since her main advantage over her brethren tends to be her speed. And speed just doesn't matter much anymore in the realm of Armor Emblem.

Spd on an armor does serve a purpose, though. You can run dual phase with only Vengeful Fighter or Quick Riposte without Bold Fighter, and it lets you break Great Flame without Bold Fighter and Thunder Armads and Wary Fighter with Bold Fighter.

Neutral-Spd Legendary Hector laughs at Grima, who can't double him even with Bold Fighter or Vengeful Fighter. He doesn't laugh so hard at Zelgius and Amelia.

[Xenomata]

Brave Roy

Spoiler

He who burns the opposition with Durandal was once one of the better offensive Sword Cavs you could have, though his stats wouldn't reflect that. Somewhat middling Attack and Speed, average HP not good enough to trigger Panic Ploy, and defensive stats not high enough to switch over to a defensive build.

His default kit was built with attacking a Melee unit and triggering Galeforce in mind, as Blazing Durandal has Heavy Blade 3 built in, along with a complimentary Attack +3. Steady Blow helped to get Roys Speed up from a mere 34 and also help him take melee hits better, and Desperation lets Roy attack consecutively once he has completed his first round of combat.

Of course, you don't need to keep this base kit, though it is quite good for a default kit. Firesweep Sword works off his decent Attack stats and access to Cavalry buffs to make a swift kill all the more potent, Swift Sparrow trades the defense boost of Steady Blow for a more guaranteed kill, as does Life and Death for slightly more power in exchange for any defensive ability, and most specials can work in place of Galeforce in tandem with the Heavy Blade effect and Desperation.

Roy remains grounded in reality by his bad defensive ability, which prevents him from trying to build with defense in mind. His offensive stats are average without support, and his Attack, even with an effective 19 might weapon, only goes so far to trigger Heavy Blade when so many units these days can hit 60 Atk without any merges or heavy support. As a Firesweep user, he competes with Siegbert, who has a better offensive spread overall, and Cain, who while not as good as either is at least more accessible.

As all the Brave Heroes are, Roy is still a good unit and ready for combat out of the box.

Rating: 7.5/10 With an offensive spread that gets better with Cavalry buffs, a default kit that enables a seamless flow of combat, and enough flexibility to go whatever path he so chooses, Roy stands as one of the better offensive Sword Cavalry even now, though he's unable to go for any bulky route and faces competition from the likes of Sword Reinhardt and Siegbert.

 

Brave Lucina

Spoiler

She who empowers the charge with Geirskogul. Lucina is pretty much the same as her default counterpart, sporting good Attack and Speed, average HP, middling Defense, and low Resistance. In fact, their growth rates are exactly the same. The difference is that Brave Lucina has slightly more Defense, letting her cancel out at least a little bit of potential damage in exchange for... not surviving as long against magic I guess?

Anyways, Geirskogul, along with boosting her Defense slightly, has the power to enable all Physical weaponry within 2 spaces of her with 3 Attack and Speed. It's not that big a boost, but it's stackable with other Drive skills, such as her default Drive Speed, and is still a good boost considering it's not limited to just Melee, but also given to the offensively potent Bows and the otherwise weak Daggers as well. Sturdy Blow helps to offset any potential damage further while also dealing more herself, and Aether is Aether. Probably not going to trigger it at a meaningful time, but it's still there.

The name of Lucina's Game is to empower her physical damaging allies while remaining in the battle for as long as possible, if not the entire time. The defensive boost from Geirskogul helps, but Sturdy Blow helps only so often and may be better replaced with a more defensive skill like Sturdy Stance or Steady Breath, or foregoing the illusion that you are running a defensive Lucina and go all out on offenses, including Swift Sparrow and Life and Death. Drive Speed is useful, but it can be replaced with Drive Atk if you'd like to stack Attack along with the Sacred Seal version for even stronger strikes, such as from a Brave Weapon. Any Rally assist would work for her, but you can also, strangly, go for Pivot if you need Lucina to reach Cavalry allies who move too fast for her to keep up/Flier allies who fly over terrain that Lucina can't ignore. Lastly, you can go for a Breaker skill if you don't need Lucina to worry that much over her offensive ability, but otherwise Desperation for Offense, Quick Riposte for Defense.

The bads are that Lucina remains just as susceptible to Magic as ever, but without the benefit of Dragon-slaying weaponry as her base form has. Without Geirskogul and Sturdy Blow, Lucina also reverts to being just as squishy as her base form is. The last bad I can come up with is that Geirskogul is just a Defense refined Silver Lance that's missing 5 HP and 1 Def, and offers no combat boosts to Lucina herself, unlike Falchion being able to be refined to gain such boosts.

But if what you want is a good Support unit for, say, your physical Brave team, then Lucina is just the right ally for you.

Rating: 8/10 While not having much in the direct combat scene, Geirskogul lets Lucina give her physical allies a solid combat boost, letting them get stronger and faster just being near her. Lucina herself remains mostly unchanged from her base form, and the additional Defense given to her from a small statchange and Geirskogul lets her take hits better, letting her survive attacks she may not have otherwise. Overall, Brave Lucina is missing a powerful offensive weapon like her base form, but can still enable her allies to make up the difference.

I already know what I'm going to say about the other two, so hurry it up day, I got some RATING to do.

[LordFrigid]

Roy

• Offense-focused stat line with good Spd, decent Atk, and mediocre Def and Res.
  • Blazing Durandal (Attack +3, built-in Heavy Blade 3) is a powerful offensive weapon, adding extra punch to his attacks and allowing him to charge his special faster.
  • Very strong green, strong red matchups on offense when Hone Cavalry is active. Note that some high-bulk and high-spd red unit sets can take him out effectively.
  • Mediocre defense matchups due to his lower defensive stats.
• As a cavalry unit, he can provide a cavalry field/combat buff to his allies.

Overall, I give him 8 for combat (very strong green, strong red matchups on offense), and 1 for support (cavalry field/combat buff), for a total rating of 7.5/10.

Lucina

• Offense-focused stat line with good Atk and Spd, mediocre Def and low Res.
  • Geirskögul (Defense +3, Atk/Spd+3 to physical allies within 2 spaces during combat) is a strong support weapon that also increases her physical bulk.
  • Very strong red, decent blue matchups with a standard offense set using Geirskögul. She can also pull off a Shell Lance+ set with very strong red, and strong blue matchups at the cost of her support capability.
  • Strong red, mediocre blue matchups on defense using Geirskögul. She can also use a more standard Slaying Lance+ set, but loses Geirskögul's support capabilities.
• Great support option through Geirskögul, providing a powerful offense combat buff to physical allies.

Overall, I give her 7.5 for combat (very strong red, decent blue matchups on offense using Geirskögul), and 2 for support (basic field/combat buff, Geirskögul), for a total rating of 7.5/10.

~

Scoring method:

Spoiler

Units are evaluated based on both their combat performance and their team support capabilities (i.e. their whole contribution to a team).

• Combat performance is judged by matchups, especially against enemies that are at triangle disadvantage or neutral to the unit. Performance against more relevant meta threats is more valuable than performance against units that are rarely seen. Triangle Adept sets are not considered, though they might be noted. Scale of 0 to 10.
  • Sustainability and filling a useful niche are given small bonuses, when applicable.
  • I will look at least one PP-focused and one EP-focused skill set for each unit, but only evaluate based on performance for whichever phase I deem the unit to be stronger on.
• Support capabilities are decided by how much support a unit can provide (without horribly compromising their combat capabilities), and how valuable I feel that support is. Scale of 0 to 3.
• At the end, the combat and support scores will be weighted (with a heavy focus on combat performance), combined, and rounded to the nearest .5 to obtain the total rating. Dancers and Singers will get +1 point to their total rating (not to exceed 10), because I value Dance/Sing utility highly.
• This method of evaluation essentially compares each unit to a hypothetical "god unit" who is stellar at everything, instead of each unit to each other.

All my ratings.